Not exactly authentic but try replacing the gravy with a truffled demi - glace… yum!!!
I actually ate at this restaurant and was not impressed. Look it’s ***… with foie gras! Replace *** with traditionally low-class ultra fatty dish of your choice. Foie gras is delicious on its own, adding it to poutine is not clever, it’s not edgy, it’s simply badly thought out, gimmicky and wasteful. It’s a great way to spice up the bill, though.
Since this thread needs some dissent, I’ll add my voice to those of the rare few who dislike the stuff. I’m Canadian, spent most of my life around Montréal and I think poutine is at best unappetizing and at worst an abomination. I like dipping, not soaking, my fries in gravy and fresh made crottes de fromage can be a good snack but just dumping everything together… Bleh.
I’m particularly pissed that somehow this dish has managed to be equated with Québec gastronomy. There’s plenty more worthwhile food out there.
Note to people who claim they can get cheese curds outside of Wisconsin (or perhaps part of Quebec):
You can’t.
Yes, you can buy things CALLED cheese curds, and they may even have one point been pretty good cheese curds, but they aren’t the same. Cheese curds don’t age well. Once they’re past 2-3 days old, they rapidly go downhill. Heck, some zealots claim that once they see the inside of a fridge, they’re ruined.
They properly should be soft and warm and squeaky. I’ve never in my life seen good curds outside of Wisconsin, and I’ve lived the majority of my life in what is essentially Wisconsin North. We can’t even get 'em there.
Nope, you must go to Wisconsin to get good curds.
Seriously, in my experience, they have to be eaten within 24 hours of being made. In Québec, the best before date is usually set three days after the date of manufacture IIRC but by that time they’ve pretty much lost all of their goodness. Squeek, squeek!
(The nearest Tim Ho’s to me is in Kabul. Sigh.)
You are thoroughly incorrect! In Oregon we have the Tillamook cheese factory which not only GIVES AWAY fresh cheddar cheese curds at the end of the tour but also sells them in bags in the gift shop. You can have your inferior Wisconsin cheese I say–Oregon cheese is the best, because it’s local!
I should open up a poutine shop in Tillamook and make bank…
You might want to see what the cows think about Wisconsin. (click on To California and Who’s she?)
I adore those commercials. I grew up in Wisconsin but was born in California and lived most of my adult life in California. Yes, happy cheese does come from happy cows!
There’s a local deli here that has something called “Paxton’s Potatoes.” It’s home fries, covered in home-made sausage gravy (the kind they put on biscuits-and-gravy,) cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chives. They advertise it as “the best cure for a hangover” and they are definitely right about that. I’ve had it on many a Sunday morning. I think I would like Poutine a lot, then.
Oh, wow, I think I’m going to have to make some of my own Paxton’s Potatoes here at home. I just ate, and reading about them makes me hungry all over again!
Well, I personally like poutine (once in a while), but I agree with you here. I find it especially amazing to see comments such as [post=9430637]this one[/post] from a few weeks ago. It’s pretty clear to me that while poutine may have precursors in the cuisine of some regions, it’s a 20[sup]th[/sup] century invention, and a purely fast food item, not a “traditional French-Canadian dish” or anything of the sort.
I also wouldn’t eat it in a fancy restaurant. Many “midclass” restaurants (as in, not fast food restaurants or plain diners, but also not fancy restaurants) now offer variations on this dish, and I don’t have a problem with it. I mean, these restaurants will usually also offer “gourmet” hamburgers, which can be very good if that’s what you’re hungry for. But would you eat a hamburger in a fancy restaurant? I know I wouldn’t. Same thing for poutine with foie gras (!).
My friend from Toronto used to go on about the squeaky cheese curds she got there. I don’t think Wisconsin is the only place that has authentic cheese curds.
Southern Ontario is actually pretty good for dairy products. There are a number of dairy farms within an hour or so of Toronto, and plenty more further afield–the best cheese I’ve ever had comes from Ivanhoe, Ontario, north of Belleville on Highway 62. I’m not terribly keen on poutine, but there’s no doubt authentic cheese curds for it are available in southern Ontario.
Maybe Ontario needs “Canada’s Dairyland” on its license plates if it expects to get any respect from Wisconsin. 
IANACCCCE (Cheese Curd Conissour…Conisou… Expert), but if you’re ever driving on I75 a little North of Bay City, MI, there are some cheese stores worth checking out. Get off at the Pinconning exit, and head East 2 or 3 miles to Pinconning, and turn North at the main road (you’ll know it). About a half mile are a couple of cheese stores (one has a mouse mascot, and the other, Pinconning Cheese Company, is roughly across the street. Piconning Cheese is the one we get cheese curd from about once a year, and my wife says* it tastes very fresh .
There’s also William’s cheese, about 5 miles farther South (the road parallels 75, so it’s not really farther out of the way) with a big cow for a mascot, but my wife said* that one’s cheese curd didn’t taste as fresh.
*I can’t keep the stores straight, but I trust my wife.
ETA: Added state for non-Michigan dopers
I dunno, I just read the Wiki description – looks like one more reason for this Colorado country boy to get up to Canada. One of my favorite artery-cloggers here in the U.S. is to order french fries covered with sausage gravy. Maybe I’ll have my son the chef try to replicate it when we go visit him and his family in May.
Don’t you just love the expansion of cultural enrichment that happens on the Dope!?
OK, forgive an ignorant American. Can a Canadian post an authentic recipe, or set of directions, or whatever, for poutine? I like fries, I like gravy, and I like cheese, there’s no reason I shouldn’t learn to combine them the way our friends north of the border do.
go ahead-rub it in!
The other 49 states aren’t that civilized unfortunately. 
Fries.
Cheese.
Gravy.
In that order.
Eat. 
Sorry, I don’t have a recipe for the gravy, but as for actually putting it all together, there really isn’t anything more than that! We usually either get our poutine from the local pizza/poutine place, or if we are making it at home, we buy the St Hubert cans or packages of gravy. We aren’t talented enough to make a good gravy on our own!
You forgot the bacon salt.
If you have a Culver’s in your area, they serve deep fried cheese curds.